Back to Life
by Eureka '94
Summary: After dying in the arena, the dead tributes are resurrected to compete in gladiator fights to entertain a country that secretly survived the nuclear war. Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games.
1. Chapter 1

_I'm alive? But how?_

Clove took a deep breath in and then exhaled shakily.

"Clove," a girl's voice whispered, prodding her on the shoulder. "Wake up."

Clove groaned, shifting into fetal position.

"Get up!" another girl's voice demanded.

"Oh, stop it, Minerva," a young man exclaimed. "Nobody shouted at you like that when you were brought back."

"Shut up, Varro!" Minerva exclaimed.

"A you good, Clove?" another young man asked in a gentler tone.

"I think she need a few minutes," a young boy said.

"Can you say something?" a little girl asked.

"Like we're doing any good, crowding around her," a girl remarked.

"Shut up! All of you!" a young man shouted.

The voices sounded familiar. Clove opened her eyes to see who they belonged to.

She looked around at the people in the room with her. She recognized those people. They were the tributes from her district who took part in the previous games and died. She recognized Varro and Minerva right away. Varro was a somewhat-stocky young man with thick, brown hair and green eyes, while Minerva was tall and slender with black hair and icy blue eyes. The first voice belonged to Juno, who was somewhat smallish with shoulder length black hair and dark green eyes. The other young men were Carbon and Flint. Carbon was a scrawny young man with floppy black hair and bright green eyes, while Flint had closely cropped brown hair and blue eyes. The other girl was Onyx. She had black hair and blue eyes. The young boy was Jasper, who had mousey hair and grey eyes, and the little girl was named Ruby, who had dark blonde hair and brown eyes. The twins, Damian and Bellatrix were also in the room, although they stayed quiet. They were both tall and skinny with black hair and blue eyes. There was also a very tall boy named Slate, who had long black hair and grey eyes. They were all staring at her. They looked concerned, all except for Minerva, who looked rather angry.

"Are we dead?" Clove asked.

"No," Juno replied. "We did die, but then we were brought back to life. Were the ones who came back right."

"What happens if you come back wrong?" Clove wondered, raising an eyebrow.

"We don't know, except that they would have to kill you and put you out of your misery," said Flint.

"There's only twelve of us then?" Clove asked.

"If Cato dies and comes back right, there'll be thirteen," Slate said.

"Can we get out of here?" Jasper, demanded. "We'll miss lunch!"

At the mention of lunch, Clove realized that she was hungry. "Yeah, can we go? I'm starving," she said.

They all headed to the cafeteria and lined up to be served lunch. The entire time, other tribute stopped to glare at Clove. Most of them were the ones that she killed. Some of them even looked frightened.

"It'll be like that for a while," Juno said. "But give it time, and those people might even become you friends."

"Why would I want to be friends with them?" Clove scoffed.

"You'd be surprised," Juno answered, waving to a girl from District Three. The girl smiled and waved back. "That was Cyan. She was in the 73rd games, like me."

"Didn't she try to kill you?" Clove asked.

"Yeah, but that's the past now. We've learned to get along since then," Juno explained.

_This is strange_, Clove thought. _We've been brought back from the dead and now we have to learn to get along?_

"I don't know if I can do this," Clove said. "We're supposed to be enemies."

"Try," Juno prompted. "You're going to be here for a long time, so you might as well."

Clove thought for a minute before nodding. "Alright," she agreed reluctantly, frowning and crossing her arms. "I'll try."

Clove spent the next few days talking to the other tributes from her district and being given the grand tour. Each district had its own common room and two sleeping areas. Varro, Flint, Damian, Carbon, Jasper and Slate all slept in one room, while Clove, Juno, Onyx, Minerva, Bellatrix and Ruby slept in the other. The sleeping areas were very large. Big enough to accommodate at least one hundred tributes, but since there was only six of them, they each took a sleeping capsule close to the ground. The capsules were small, but looked very cozy. It must have been the reason why Minerva never wanted to leave hers.

Minerva was brutal. She never smiled, laughed, or showed any emotion. Everyone was beginning to doubt that she even had any. She was grouchy, and hostile, and bloodthirsty, but other than that, she seemed pretty one-dimensional.

"Great," Clove remarked. "I've always wanted to meet a real psychopath."

"She's not a psychopath," Juno began. "She's just...well...actually, I'm telling a lie; she is a psychopath."

"She was Carbon's district partner, right?" Clove asked.

"Yep," Juno said. "And boy did she ever make a mess of him when the time came."

They both shuddered.

"And Johanna Mason was the one who killed her, right?" Clove asked.

"Yep. And it's a good thing too. Could you imagine Minerva as a Victor?" Juno remarked.

"And as a mentor?" Clove remarked as well.

"Yeah, she'd pretty much be leading her tributes to their graves," Juno said, grimacing.

They both sat down on a sofa.

Suddenly, there was an announcement over the intercom.

_"Will the Tributes of District Two please report to the Life Room! The Tributes if District Two! Thank you." _the voice boomed.

"I guess Cato will be joining us," Juno said. "Come on."

They stood up and walked into the girls' sleeping area. "Minerva," Juno called. "It's time to go to the Life Room. Cato's joining us."

"Oh, piss off!" Minerva shouted.

"Now, Minerva," Juno insisted. "We _all_ have to go."

Minerva ignored her.

"I SAID NOW!" Juno shouted.

Still nothing.

"GET UP!" Clove screamed.

"Alright, alright," Minerva hissed. "Jeez!"

"Every damn time," Juno muttered.

Minerva climbed out of her capsule and stopped in front of them. "This better not take long," she hissed indignantly.

They walked over to the Life Room where the others were waiting. They all gathered around a platform and waited patiently. Then the platform opened and Cato emerged on an elevator. His eyes snapped open immediately and he jumped to his feet.

"Take it easy," Juno said. "You were just brought back from the dead."

"How?" Cato demanded. Then his eyes widened. "Oh my god!" he exclaimed. "I know who you are!"

"Yeah," Carbon said. "We're the Tributes who lost. Welcome to the club."

"So this is where we all go?" Cato asked.

"The ones who come back right, yeah," Bellatrix answered.

"Yeah, so can we go now?" Minerva demanded.

"I thought she was the best," Cato said, pointing at Minerva.

Minerva smirked. "I like him," she said.

The next few days were pretty interesting. Every few minutes, Cato would pick a fight with someone. He even picked a fight with Carbon. Small, skinny Carbon. The fight started out as a regular kicking and punching fight, but then Cato grabbed a knife and stabbed him. Carbon slouched over and clutched the stab wound in his abdomen, wincing in pain, but then the would closed and heal itself completely. But Cato didn't stop there. He just kept stabbing Carbon and the wounds just kept healing themselves. Meanwhile, Clove and the other Tributes from the seventy-fourth Games were shocked at what they were watching. Clove, Marvel, and Glimmer decided that they had seen enough. They grabbed Cato and dragged him away from Carbon. Then Clove turned away and went to find Juno.

"I'm sorry, Clove," Juno said. "There's something I forgot to tell you."

"Then tell me now," Clove demanded. "There's something going on here, and I want to know what it is."

"Tell me this," Juno began. "How do you feel about going back into the Arena?"

During the few days that she was there, Clove never thought about the possibility of going back and fighting again. "I don't know," she admitted. "It was great volunteering for the Games and fighting in the arena at first. I was really enjoying myself in there. But then I got my head bashed in by that guy from District Eleven. I always dreamed of winning the Games. I thought I was invincible, but then I went and got myself killed. I guess now I know why most of the other Districts hate the Games so much."

"So if you had a choice, then you wouldn't go back?" Juno asked.

Clove thought for a minute and then shook her head. "No," she answered.

"Neither do I," Juno said. "And neither do the others. Except for Minerva."

They both chuckled. Then Juno's expression turned serious again.

"If you win the Games, you pretty much live the sweet life without having to go back into the arena," Juno explained. "But if you lose, not only do you die, but you are also brought back to compete in gladiator fights for another country that survived the war."

"But I thought Panem was the only country left," Clove said.

"So did we," Juno admitted. "And so did everyone else, except, of course, for President Snow and his government. The country's called Superbia. We're there right now."

"What are the people like?" Clove asked.

"I've met some of them," Juno said. "Lazy, arrogant, snobbish, vain, hedonistic, and just plain stupid."

"So basically, just like the Capitol?" Clove suggested.

"Yep," Juno agreed. "Except the styles are different. Here, everyone's wearing gold, silver, black, and white, along with some other colours. A bit more tasteful."

"So, Juno, Is this what our lives are going to be like from now on?" Clove asked.

"Yeah," Juno said reluctantly. "I'm sorry."

And with that, Juno stood up and left. One thing was certain: the fighting was never going to end, and not even dying would save anyone.


	2. Chapter 2

Over the next few days, Clove told the other tributes about what was going on. This was not an easy task, as at least half of them were still afraid of her. _I made my bed so now I have to lie in it_, she thought. After that, she went to speak with Juno.

"So I told a bunch of the others," she said. "Not like they would listen, though."

"That's alright," Juno said. "The tributes from their own districts might have told them anyway."

Suddenly, there was an announcement over the intercom. "Attention, everyone," the voice said. "We are pleased to announce that there will be a gladiator fight this Friday at seven o'clock PM. The tributes who are involved will be from Districts One and Two. The District Two gladiators will be Juno, Carbon, and Clove, and the District One Gladiators will be Beau, Fuchsia, and Glimmer.

Clove shrugged. She knew that the fight was mandatory, so she had no choice but to take part. She thought that Glimmer would be easy to defeat, but as for the others, she was not so sure. Beau, and Fuchsia were both good fighters and they would easily be a match for herself and Juno, but fighting against Carbon? After concentrating on the past Games that she watched, Clove was able to remember watching Carbon a few years before when he was in the 71st annual Games. This was also Minerva and Fuchsia's Games as well. Clove was twelve years old at the time, so she would have been able to volunteer if they allowed twelve-year-olds to do so. In District Two, there was an unspoken rule against letting twelve and thirteen-year-olds volunteer.

At the Reaping, Minerva shoved her way to the stage, stormed up to the microphone, and hastily volunteered. Carbon, on the other hand, was not as willing. He volunteered, but it took a few minutes of coaxing from the escort to finally get him onto the stage. Carbon's older brother, Arsenic, who was a victor and had since become disillusioned with the Games, was horrified. When the escort presented them, Minerva was triumphant, but Carbon looked as stiff as a board. Just by watching him, everyone could tell that he was a goner. Meanwhile, in District One, Fuchsia cheerfully skipped onto the stage and volunteered, and a boy named Gem waved to everyone as he enthusiastically sauntered up to volunteer immediately after. Finally in District Four, a girl named Molly and a boy named Storm reluctantly volunteered and hastily walked onto the stage.

They turned out to be quite a team until Minerva betrayed them one night. Storm was the first to die. She slit his throat while he was sleeping. After that, Carbon woke up and saw what happened. He shouted at the others to wake up, but then Minerva pinned him down and tore him open with one of her knives, letting him bleed to death. She then grabbed Fuchsia from behind and slit her throat. Gem was enraged by this and lunged at Minerva, who grabbed a spear and impaled him when he came close enough. She then grabbed Molly and threw her into a pit of toxic sludge. Minerva was certain that she had won, but then Johanna Mason, who had dropped her weakling façade and went on her own killing spree, emerged from her hiding place, charged at her, and sliced into her forehead with a hatchet. After that, Johanna was crowned Victor.

Clove remembered the Victory Tour. Johanna came and did her speech. It seemed forced, like she did not mean any of the things she was saying. Everyone tried to hide their resentment, but it was pretty clear that many people, especially Minerva's family, hated her.

All the people in the other Districts and a lot of people in District Two secretly hated the Hunger Games back in District Two, and Clove was beginning to see why. She used to look in the mirror and see a Victor, but ever since she arrived in Superbia, she would look in the mirror and see a demon. All of the training and conditioning she did before the Games had turned her into a monster.

She lowered her head and walked into the lounge, bumping past Minerva on the way there. "Watch it, pipsqueak!" Minerva shouted indignantly. Clove didn't bother to apologize. Minerva would have just ignored her if she did.

The next few days were spent preparing for the fight. She was still very skilled at knife throwing. She thought that she might have gone a bit rusty after dying and being brought back to life, but she was still very good. When she wasn't training, she was watching Juno and Carbon.

Juno was also very skilled with throwing knives, as well as a trench knife. Carbon was very skilled with a dagger, but Juno was much faster and more skilled at fighting. Their training methods were very vicious. Instead of merely sparring with each other, they were full-out fighting and inflicting wounds on each other. But they were not badly injured, as their wounds immediately healed after they formed. After fighting for what felt like twenty minutes, they slumped down onto the floor, tired and out of breath.

"That's exactly what will happen to you in matches," Juno explained; "So it helps us get used to being cut open."

"Then how do we know who wins?" Clove asked.

"Whoever's the first to draw blood wins," Carbon said. "It's easier said than done, since our injuries heal very quickly."

Suddenly, Clove felt a spear being impaled into her shoulder and coming out on the other side before being pulled back out. Blood gushed from the wound before it healed. She looked up and noticed Juno and Carbon looking at someone standing behind her. She turned around and saw Minerva holding a spear with its tip coated with blood. "See?" she jeered. "This is how you draw blood."


End file.
